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On Sunday I had the Run For the Parks 4-miler, another NYRR race in my quest for the 9+1 and guaranteed entry for the 2016 NYC Marathon. After a 20-mile bike ride on Saturday I was in no mood to get myself up and in Central Park by 7:45 AM for a race that—if all went well—was going to take me less an half an hour. Off I went, though, hoping that my tired legs and squeaky toe were up for it. The subways can be kind of a crapshoot on Sunday mornings, so I allowed a lot of extra time for travel and ended up (for once) arriving a good bit early for the race. It was still fairly cool out so I used the time to warm up and probably put in close to a mile before I started working my way to the start. I hadn’t run since Tuesday due to the toe squeak, so I was anxious to get some strides in and feel out a good race pace before we started. I was hoping for a pace in the low 7’s, but every time I thought I was probably approaching that and checked the Garmin, my pace was actually low 7’s/high 8’s. It didn’t seem like the best sign, but I finally hit it and held it long enough for it to sink into my brain and then headed off to the start.

The race had a strong turnout, which is great since 100% of the proceeds go to park programs, but 8,000+ people in Central Park does get a bit crowded. I was in the third corral thanks to my Prospect 4-miler time, and I figured having fast people around me would help a lot with the pacing. We got off to a quick start and I focused on breathing and finding a good rhythm. I pushed pretty hard and I really don’t remember much of the race other than trying and succeeding in overtaking some chic in a Boston Athletic Association jacket, and dropping one of my gloves half a mile from the finish. That was upsetting because 1) they’re my favorite lucky running gloves, and 2) I knew it was stupid to try to take them off when I was that close to the end. I clocked in at 28:55, which was 7:14 splits—30 seconds/mile better than my Prospect 4-miler in February. As soon as I cleared the chute I worked my way back to where I dropped the glove, waited for a break in the runners, and did something resembling one of those football player drills to dart out, grab the glove off the ground, and then run back to the curb without disrupting the flow of the race. Thus reunited with my gloves, I headed back to the finish to wait for LRB, who was running with a newbie friend. When the results were posted it turned out that I had finished 13th in my age group and 103rd overall woman, which, given the field size, is probably my best finish ever. It was totally the gloves.

After the race and some brunch with LRB and his friend, I hit the pool to work on the two-beat kick we had learned in class last week. (And by “learned” I mean attempted with much awkward flailing.) Since I had already put in a hard cardio effort I decided just to really focus on technique on the swim. I spent 30 minutes kicking down the pool one length on my back, then working on the two-beat kick swimming back. Since I could catch my breath on the kicking lengths, it took some of the pressure off timing the breathing with the two-beat, and by the end I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it. I suspect that my kick form could still use some work, though. It feels more like flinging something icky off my foot than a singular flutter kick, but I think it’s progress nonetheless.

This weekend I also officially joined the Brooklyn Tri Club, and we had our first bike workout of the season bright and early this morning. I was able to hang with the other newbies, but I am getting my first bout of seriously cold feet for the upcoming races. When I started this whole tri endeavor, it was the swim that scared me. Now it’s the bike that I find myself dreading. Despite all the time I spent on the trainer this winter, being on the road is a whole different world. I find riding in traffic really nerve-wracking, and I still find the feeling of being clipped in terrifying challenging. After my ride on Saturday I decided to wear running shoes when I’m riding on the streets for the time being, and only clip in when I’m in the park or otherwise out of traffic. That has at least eased some of the anxiety I have when cabs are whizzing by me inches from my elbow.

I’m actually surprised at how vulnerable I feel when I’m just riding fast in the park, though. I love going fast on skis or skates, but on the bike I just keep thinking about broken bones and road rash. This morning we were working on keeping a fast cadence and spinning on the small chain ring, and I was having a really hard time convincing myself to pedal downhill. I hope know that a lot of this will work itself out as I get more comfortable on the bike and log some more road time. My first sprint tri is a month away, though, and I feel woefully underprepared at the moment. I’ve been focused on running these past few months and I still haven’t done a real brick workout, let alone an open water swim. I need to just sit down and layout my training calendar for the next four weeks, get the key workouts scheduled, and I know I’ll feel a lot better. But between work, training, and minimal sleep requirements I can’t seem to find the time. Also, I’m getting worried about the squeaky toe. Before the stress fracture, I would have just run on it and not worried unless I could hear it over my ipod, but now I’m afraid of another boot-bound month and lost training hours. I keep reminding myself that part of the reason I wanted to do the tri was for the challenge—to learn to swim properly, to get better at biking, and to do something that a few years ago I thought I could never, ever do. Then there’s the part of me that keeps screaming, “screw this! I just want to run!” One of these days, she’ll come around, right?

The good news about this weekend is that it was super productive. The bad news is that I was completely exhausted by Monday. I ended up with the schedule stacked against me last week, when I realized that I needed to squeeze in a strength training session with Kali the Destroyer. I ended up fitting that in on Thursday morning, which moved my tempo run to Friday. The strength training was great (doing the Jillian Michael sessions twice a week really are making me stronger), and I happy to wake up on Friday without much soreness. My scheduled tempo was 1 easy, 5 at 7:49, and 1 easy, which I got through without much drama. I had the Al Gordon 4-Miler in Prospect Park on Saturday, and I tried my best to channel the successful tempo to garner some enthusiasm for the race.

Al Gordon 4-Miler

I had signed up for the 4-miler when I came back from my stress fracture, mainly as an attempt to save myself from jumping right into training for the NYC Half. That (somewhat) worked, and I really had no goal in mind for the race other than to improve my corral for the half next month. I should probably explain for those uninitiated in the efficient machine that is New York Road Runners, that all of their races have starting corrals which are seeded by pace. The catch is that your pace group is based on the fastest average mile split logged in any race you’ve run with them, regardless of distance. I rarely race anything shorter than a 10K, and when I do, they’re usually social runs with friends when I’m not focused on time. I was currently in the 8:00 corral based on my last 10K, and was hoping to improve my start position a bit given the crowded field in the NYC Half. With that in mind, I dragged myself out of bed at 6 AM on Saturday morning and bundled up. It was 6 degrees out and, not wanting to spend too much time freezing in the corral, I got to the start only a few minutes before the gun. We were off, and I went into Bill Belichik Do-Your-Job mode—no drama, no whining, just hit my pace and get the job done. I still had a 14-mile long run to do on Sunday, so the idea was to run hard, but not plumb new depths of pain. I held 7:30’s on the flats, 8:00’s on the uphills, and tried to take it sub-7 on the downs when I could. I held off a side stitch with some very focused belly breathing for the last mile and finished in 30:23. It would have been nice to break 30 minutes, but I was happy with the effort, and it should move me up at least one or two corrals. After I finished, the Caveboy met me with a warm jacket and asked if the lake was completely frozen, at which point I realized that I had not taken in my surroundings in the least. How’s that for focus?

From Prospect I jumped on the train to Union Square and grabbed a cup of coffee while I waited for Jack Rabbit Sports to open. They were having their spring clearance sale and I was hoping to snag a tri race kit cheap. Long Run Buddy was meeting me there, and we both scored major deals. I was able to pick up two race kits, and I also found a pair of my favorite running shorts and a book on bike maintenance, all for $55. Win. While I was waiting for LRB to check out I checked my race results and discovered that I had finished 4th in my age group. Double win. We had a celebratory brunch and then Caveboy and I headed home to catch up on laundry and other life essentials. I had a bike session on the calendar as well, so after throwing in a load of running clothes I set up the bike and queued up an episode of Gilmore Girls. This was the first session of my base-building training plan on TrainerRoad, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be too brutal given the 14 mile long run the next day. “8-Minute Power Test” initially sounded pretty innocuous, but it turned out to be a pretty intense hour-long workout.

Trainer Road

TrainerRoad basically syncs your phone, iPad, or computer with your (Bluetooth-enabled) bike computer to give you a customized spin workout. It estimates virtual power based on your trainer model and gives you real time stats on your power output, showing you a green, yellow, or red zone depending on how well you’re keeping up with the designed workout. They also provide real-time on-screen instructions for each session, as well as additional background info on the website and even free webinars on training topics. I’ve heard really good things about it and given that I have zero experience with bike training, I am basically putting all my faith in their approach. The workout started with an easy spin warm-up, and then progressed to two very short, hard intervals. No matter what I did, I couldn’t keep my power up in the green zone where it was supposed to be, and I was starting to get very worried about my biking abilities and questioning why I had taken on this whole triathlon endeavor. Thankfully there was another easy spin period at that point and the on-screen instructions started describing the two 8-minute power trials that were coming up. It was then that I realized that point of this ride was to calibrate my functional threshold power, and that the green zone for power that the app was currently showing me was completely arbitrary (i.e. probably calibrated for a large dude who is a much better cyclist than me.) This is why I probably should not consider reading the instructions to be a sign of weakness… Anyway, I was at least somewhat relieved, and I got through the power tests within tolerable pain levels. TrainerRoad spit out a new FTP at the end, and my next workout should be calibrated for my current fitness level.

Slushy Central Park

Long Run

Sunday the temperature shot up 30 degrees into the mid-40’s, and it seemed all of New York was covered in 2 inches of accumulated slush, dirt, and formerly-frozen dog pee. I had originally planned to run as much as I could of the NYC Half course for my long run, but it was clear that traversing the sidewalks was not a desirable option. I figured Central Park was probably my best shot at clear roads, so I met up with LRB after his morning spin session and set off. He had a 1:45 run in HR Zone 1-2 on the menu, so it was much the same drill as last week. We ran a bit slower than my target 8:30’s, but my legs were feeling pretty dead after the strength/tempo/race/bike whammy anyway. We were both not wearing headphones for once, so we chatted on and off and the miles ticked by quickly. The encouraging part about this run was really how undramatic it was given how tired I felt. Undoubtedly it would have hurt a lot more had I been running 8:30’s instead of 8:45’s, but I did pick it up for the last few miles after LRB clocked out and my endurance felt solid.

Monday morning I had an hour of strength training scheduled, but on Sunday night I decided that I would benefit more from an additional hour of sleep. I had vague notions of still getting it in after work, but by mid-afternoon it was clear that what I really needed was rest and a massage. After some aggressive tiger tailing and an hour on the couch after dinner I was off to bed, and felt much more alive this morning. The intervals du jour were 2×1200 at 6:53 pace followed by 4×800 at 6:49 pace with 2 minute recovery intervals. After my poor showing last week, I was determined to bang these out without walking a recovery or stopping for a rest, and I. DID. IT. I downed half a power bar while waiting for the train after, which is part of my initiative to be nicer to myself about post-workout nutrition. (More on that in a later post.) Tonight is swim class, and the rest of the week is the usual combo of swimming, Trainer Road bike workouts, hard runs, and beet juice.

Stress Fracture Update

The big news this week is that I ran… twice! The first one was supposed to be just a mile, but turned into two, and the second was supposed to be 3.5 and ended up being 2.5 due to freezing rain, but still, I ran! My foot felt a bit sore for about the first mile or so of each, and again towards the end of both runs, but overall there seemed to be no increased soreness or swelling afterward. I did notice that my arch felt a bit tight a few hours after, and I think I will probably need to be a bit more diligent about stretching and using the foam roller as I ease back into running. I’ve been keeping up with the strength, biking, and swimming this week as well, and weirdly, I think I can actually feel my body starting to adapt to the new training. Everything stays the same for days or weeks, and then suddenly the hand weights that felt heavy last week seem to be lighter, or something will just click mid-swim. Last week I looked in the mirror and thought that it seemed odd that my arms didn’t really look any different after a month of swimming and weight training, and then two days later I looked like I had taken up a blacksmithing hobby. (I actually did a little in college and have some lovely candlesticks to show for it…)

Anyway, I’m trying hard to come up with a training plan for the next several weeks that will challenge me without risking reinjury. My successful runs this weekend gave me enough confidence to sign up for a 4-mile race a month from now, and I’ve decided to try using a slightly modified FIRST plan to train. I’ll actually be doing the cross-training this time, which should fold nicely into my tri plans, and if all goes well, a fast 4-miler will set me up for faster distance work this spring. I still need to lay out my full race calendar for the year, but I want to hold off a few more weeks to see what kind of running volume I’m able to handle before I start committing to the spring races that I really want to do. In related news, I got the email on Thursday for my guaranteed entry to the NYC Marathon, and $227 later I am officially in! Long Run Buddy is as well, and I’m very excited to have a training partner for the full distance of my long runs this fall.

When do I get to call myself a Triathlete?

Even though I’m holding off on committing to any major (running) races for a few more weeks, I did sign up for two sprint-tri’s in May and June, and suddenly that whole endeavor is getting much more real. My swim classes started last Tuesday, and I’m so, SO glad I enrolled. The class is geared to novice (but not absolute beginner) swimmers and is focused on the basics of technique and efficiency. I’ve always seen myself as a weak swimmer and was nervous that I should have signed up for the beginner class, but I seem to be at least at the average skill level in the group. A few of my classmates have done the NYC Tri before, so I feel a bit more confident that I’ll be able to get through the swim in the allotted time, not to mention survive a dip in the Hudson. There are also several veteran runners/first-time triathletes in the class who are signed up for the NYC race, and it will be great to get to know a few other newbies as well. Last week’s session focused mainly on breathing technique, and in addition to working side lying kicking and one arm drills, our coach referred us to this video, created by sea mammal Michael Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman. His explanation is very clear and after a very focused half hour in the pool this weekend I actually did start to feel the bow wave on my head.

This week I hope to start structured training for the 4-miler and settle into a workable training schedule that incorporates multiple swim, bike, run, and strength workouts each week. I will be doing two-a-days several times a week, but I’m hoping that scheduling more short and varied sessions will keep me healthy while still building fitness and strength. I’m trying to alternate days so that I minimize doing the same activity back-to-back, but I still have to work out the kinks. I’m incorporating a lot more strength training that I did last season, and I hope that will help me prepare for a heavier training load and avoid injury.

Here’s the plan this week:

Monday

Weight training – JM No More Trouble Zones

Tuesday

AM

Running – Intervals

6×800 @ 3:38*

RI 90 sec

PM

Swim class

Wednesday

AM

Swim – 30 min

PM

Strength – JM Ripped in 30 Week 2

Thursday

AM

Running – Tempo

2 mi @ 8:04*

1 mi easy

2 mi @ 8:04*

PM

Optional 30 min bike

Friday

AM

Strength – 1 hr with Trainer

Saturday

AM

3 mi easy

PM

30 min swim

Sunday

AM

Brick:

Cycle

10 min easy

10 min tempo

10 min easy

5 min hard

5 min easy

Long Run – 7 mi @ 8:34* (If all goes well this week)

*I should note that these paces are pegged to my last marathon and I have no idea if I’ll be able to handle the speed after 6 weeks off.

This was a big year in running for me—I set new PR’s at every distance I raced, finally ran a marathon, and then ran another one. The thing that I am most proud of, though, was learning how to really work hard at my training. I’ve never been one to skip workouts, but this year I tried to bring focus and purpose to every run. The hard days were really hard, and easy runs became opportunities to work on form and efficiency, rather than just zone-out sessions. More than anything else, though, I learned that the voice in my head telling me I was too tired and I couldn’t do it was usually just that—my head being tired. I’m still working on it, but I got much, much better at ignoring that voice, pulling up my big girl tights, and pushing through.

I’m now dealing with the other side of that coin, however, which was misreading the signs that I was overdoing it on the bike. Although I felt some discomfort, the pain never felt remotely like what I recognized as an injury—I just thought I was putting in some tough workouts. As runners, we rely on our ability to listen to our bodies and differentiate between the discomfort of a hard workout and the pain that indicates an impending injury. My mistake was assuming that my ability to discern that line extended to a new sport in which I had little experience. The fact that cycling (and swimming, too) is not weight-bearing means that the threshold for and severity of discomfort are entirely different, and I failed to calibrate for that.

For the past two weeks I’ve been slowly returning to something that resembles an actual training schedule, albeit without the running. In contrast to my usual approach, I’m going mostly by feel and making it up a week at a time. I’m realizing that switching from running to tackling the other triathlon disciplines is a bit like driving in the snow. I know exactly how the car handles under normal conditions, and while that’s useful information, I still need to go easy on the gas pedal and leave lots of extra braking distance. My general zeal for new athletic endeavors combined with marathon-level endurance have proved to be a dangerous combination, so I’m trying to recalibrate a bit. To that end, I’m mixing up my workouts so that I’m not doing the same activity on consecutive days, and still incorporating lots of strength training. For biking since the injury, my approach so far has been to stop before I feel like I’ve really had enough. I seem to be finding my groove with the swim workouts—I actually got (temporarily) thrown out of the slow lane by the lifeguard and upgraded to the medium lane last weekend. My classes start next week, so I’m expecting that will lend a bit more structure to my pool workouts as well. This is how week 1 of Operation: Recovery has looked:

It’s now been a week since I first started feeling some mild discomfort from the (self-diagnosed) EDL tendinitis. As I wrote in this previous post, it escalated quickly. Walking is hit or miss; sometimes I feel almost no pain, and other times it’s quite sharp. Running, jumping, or any sort of impact is still out of the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, this weekend I was signed up for the NYRR Jingle Bell Jog, a 4-miler in Prospect Park. I haven’t run any races that short since the Israel 4-miler this spring, and I hadn’t raced it, so I was really looking forward to letting loose on this one. It’s rare NYRR races are on my home turf in Prospect and I was hoping to run 7:30ish splits and move up a corral or two.

By Friday it was clear that there would not be any running happening this weekend, but I still needed to finish the race for my 9+1 entry for next year’s NYC marathon. The Caveboy graciously offered to keep me company while I walked, which was sweet and rather brave given how grumpy I was about the whole thing. I really was trying to stay positive and upbeat outwardly, but I was in a fair bit of pain by the end and probably not very good company.

My biggest concern was whether all of the walking was going to set me back even further, but on Sunday my foot actually felt a little better. I was starting to get some taper madness and did an upper body kettle bell workout just so I didn’t feel like such a slug, but I knew it wouldn’t get me the much-needed hit of endorphins. For the rest of the day I took the opportunity to rest and ice it while watching football and catching up on my holiday knitting, and by evening it seemed like the visible swelling was gone. I was cautiously optimistic that it was on the mend, but then this morning the puffy spot was back and it seemed to hurt as much as ever. Exit Optimism. In an effort to find some kind of cardio outlet, though, I did scope out a pool to join yesterday, and a swim cap and goggles are on my errand list today.

I keep telling myself that I can turn this into a positive. I can focus on getting stronger and start swimming in preparation for the summer tri. For the first time in years, though I’m having a hard time finding the motivation to work out when I can’t do any of the activities I enjoy. I have no idea if this will take days or weeks or months to heal. (Though if it’s not showing signs of improvement by the end of the week, I’m going to get some x-rays.) Running is my prozac, and the combination of the frustration of the injury and losing my stress outlet really has me down. I think what makes this one particularly difficult is that it came on so suddenly. When I’ve had runner’s knee, plantar fasciitis, or IT band problems I could make (sometimes badly) calculated decisions about whether to run through the pain or not. I knew that it might ultimately result in having to take some time off, but I at least had a chance to mentally prepare for that eventuality. There’s nothing to do right now but to keep moving forward in whatever way I can and not let the frustration get in the way.

After I finished all the cooking last weekend I savored a few minutes of quiet and sat down with my gmail calendar to plan my next few months of training. I love lists, schedules, and thinking about interval workouts, so planning the next race is pretty much my favorite thing. My spring A race is going to be the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach in March, but I’m also signed up for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon in January, which is where I had set my immediate sights. I’m also gearing up for triathlon training in the spring, so I was looking forward to starting to incorporate bike and swim workouts as a two-a-day option for winter training.

Surrounded by a pile of training books (as well as multiple Chrome tabs), I crafted a fairly intense few months of morning runs and evening bike sessions, with swim classes starting up in January. I enthusiastically kicked all of this off with brick workouts or two-a-days every day over Thanksgiving weekend. I was feeling like a total beast—or at least enjoying imagining the total beast I would be after a month of biking drills. Everything was going great until Sunday, as I was finishing an 8-mile run. I noticed some mild soreness in the top of my left foot, but chalked it up to the new shoes I was still breaking in and jumped on the bike another 45 minutes to round out the day. It was still a little sore on Monday, which is my rest day. I figured the day off from running was just what I needed, but decided to go ahead with 30 minutes of one-legged pedaling drills in the evening.

Tuesday I hit the gym bright and early, ready for my first official interval session of the training schedule. Such opportunity! Such promise! Such stabbing pain behind my toes! I stopped, stretched, tried again, and ended up quitting after a quarter mile. I haven’t actually stopped a run because something hurt since, oh, 2010, so that was a big deal. “It’s great that I’ve started doing bike workouts, though,” I thought to myself. “I’ll just do spin intervals instead.” 45 minutes later I was dripping sweat and pleased with my workout as well as my positive attitude and willingness to do something other than run. I stepped off the bike, tried to put weight on my left foot, and nearly fell over. After limping around a bit and stretching I was able to walk almost normally again, but it was clear that whatever was wrong, the bike was making it much, much worse.

After a visit to Dr. Internet, I’ve diagnosed extensor tendonitis. It’s often caused by pressure from shoes that are too tight across the toe box, and I’m quite sure that my bike shoes qualify. Tight calf muscles can also contribute, and some aggressive tiger tailing that night did release some alarmingly tight muscles there. I’ve been icing my foot in the evenings, which seems to help for at least an hour or so following. After 3 days, though, walking still hurts and running doesn’t feel like a remote possibility. I also obviously can’t bike, and strapping my feet into the rowing machine seems like an equally bad idea. I did a solid strength training session yesterday, but I’m at a loss for other cross-training options. If nothing else, this may motivate me to sign up for a pool membership this weekend.

I’m trying to stay positive–at least this happened in the off season and not right before a race–but having such limited workout options is making me a little crazy. I’ve also realized that no matter how good of shape I’m in right now, I’m still a newbie at cycling and I’m probably in for a lot of the same frustrations I had when I started running. Learning new things–it’s awesome, right? This is all going to be worth it?